What do you think?
Rate this book
Doc Future #1
The Fall of Doc Future
The trilogy is set in a world that’s similar to ours but has magic — which is largely about manipulating probabilities to achieve the desired outcome. Among other things, the setting features deities, demons, meta-humans, and mind control.
The first book has several main characters. Doc Future has underwent several mental augmentations which made him the smartest human in the world. His adopted daughter Flicker can operate at super speeds and is a high functioning autistic. Flicker’s best friend Dr. Stella Reinhart is introduced as a mind control researcher. Donner is a meta-human rock musician whose supernatural abilities manifest through his voice.
The book is followed by Skybreaker’s Call and The Maker’s Ark.
The first book has several main characters. Doc Future has underwent several mental augmentations which made him the smartest human in the world. His adopted daughter Flicker can operate at super speeds and is a high functioning autistic. Flicker’s best friend Dr. Stella Reinhart is introduced as a mind control researcher. Donner is a meta-human rock musician whose supernatural abilities manifest through his voice.
The book is followed by Skybreaker’s Call and The Maker’s Ark.
- GenresFiction
Unknown Binding
First published September 27, 2013
5 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 10, 2025
First, I can't believe this is FREE. It has almost no marketing. Found it via a mention on twitter. It's on a random tumblr blog, no ebook (had to finagle one myself). 1/10 for discoverability. I don't see why this can't be a published book.
It's primarily about three things:
- The physical and social results of ~c superspeed;
- The results of mentation loops that trap emotion and are remembered and revered (fictionalized as cognition-enhancers);
- Outsider status in society.
These three are examined through the characters of Flicker, Alan Future and Stella and their interpersonal relationships. Then there are other characters: Donner, who is sort of a male Siren on land; and Yiskah, who's a brain-clone of Stella. Doc (Alan) Future is a plain uber-smart guy who is also a beacon for his alternate-reality selves. Stella is almost as smart and has telekinesis. Flicker has extreme control over the physical world. Donner has an alternate method of influence over others. Looking at these archetypes, one can sort of divine where the story might go. But the author ups the ante by not dismissing the origin of Flicker's powers, and in the process introduces a world that's much larger than even these superhuman heroes and it almost stretches them to their limit.
The prose is pretty decent, if somewhat clinical. What I really liked here is that the author pulls out all stops: he's not dragging the story along or re-explaining something multiple times to raise faux-tension. The worst thing this story does is taking just a hair too long to get to the good parts. Some of the Donner-Flicker romance could've been edited out.
The plot is tight and makes you re-examine your understanding of the story at a few junctures. There is no narrator here, so all the explaining is done via dialogue and spoken intentions of these characters. There's an element of mystery here but it's kept in check by the groundedness of the characters and the world they live in. It is a fantastical world, but the author doesn't go overboard. He isn't hand-waving away miracles: this book is by a smart guy, about how smart guys think. These characters are genuinely smart and it comes across in the way they act and speak and think. If you've seen the Sherlock TV series (the one with Martin Freeman and Benedict whats-his-cucumber), this book is the exact opposite - it has a competent, smart writer. That TV show had truly stupid writers that saw intellect as a license for impossible events.
If you're like me you'll adore the parts that show and explain Flicker's super-speed actions. No "It's speedforce I ain't gotta explain shit" here. There are real-world consequences and people and governments that can't always be flicked away. The sequence the book starts with is pretty great. The one with moon-writing is also pretty cool. I personally liked the beatdown she gave Thor the most.
If you've ever self-introspected enough to exploit the emotional meaning attached to various things in your life, you'll enjoy the parts that detail the way Doc and Stella try to re-integrate brains.
Although this book is long, this is just part one. Part two is up on the author's Tumblr, and part three is a work-in-progress but it seems to have stalled for about two years. Anyway, this book does work as a stand-alone and can be enjoyed without going to the second one (which I haven't read yet) because it wraps up most of the important plot points, and really only leaves the persistent multiversal warning-dreams part of the story unexamined.
It's primarily about three things:
- The physical and social results of ~c superspeed;
- The results of mentation loops that trap emotion and are remembered and revered (fictionalized as cognition-enhancers);
- Outsider status in society.
These three are examined through the characters of Flicker, Alan Future and Stella and their interpersonal relationships. Then there are other characters: Donner, who is sort of a male Siren on land; and Yiskah, who's a brain-clone of Stella. Doc (Alan) Future is a plain uber-smart guy who is also a beacon for his alternate-reality selves. Stella is almost as smart and has telekinesis. Flicker has extreme control over the physical world. Donner has an alternate method of influence over others. Looking at these archetypes, one can sort of divine where the story might go. But the author ups the ante by not dismissing the origin of Flicker's powers, and in the process introduces a world that's much larger than even these superhuman heroes and it almost stretches them to their limit.
The prose is pretty decent, if somewhat clinical. What I really liked here is that the author pulls out all stops: he's not dragging the story along or re-explaining something multiple times to raise faux-tension. The worst thing this story does is taking just a hair too long to get to the good parts. Some of the Donner-Flicker romance could've been edited out.
The plot is tight and makes you re-examine your understanding of the story at a few junctures. There is no narrator here, so all the explaining is done via dialogue and spoken intentions of these characters. There's an element of mystery here but it's kept in check by the groundedness of the characters and the world they live in. It is a fantastical world, but the author doesn't go overboard. He isn't hand-waving away miracles: this book is by a smart guy, about how smart guys think. These characters are genuinely smart and it comes across in the way they act and speak and think. If you've seen the Sherlock TV series (the one with Martin Freeman and Benedict whats-his-cucumber), this book is the exact opposite - it has a competent, smart writer. That TV show had truly stupid writers that saw intellect as a license for impossible events.
If you're like me you'll adore the parts that show and explain Flicker's super-speed actions. No "It's speedforce I ain't gotta explain shit" here. There are real-world consequences and people and governments that can't always be flicked away. The sequence the book starts with is pretty great. The one with moon-writing is also pretty cool. I personally liked the beatdown she gave Thor the most.
If you've ever self-introspected enough to exploit the emotional meaning attached to various things in your life, you'll enjoy the parts that detail the way Doc and Stella try to re-integrate brains.
Although this book is long, this is just part one. Part two is up on the author's Tumblr, and part three is a work-in-progress but it seems to have stalled for about two years. Anyway, this book does work as a stand-alone and can be enjoyed without going to the second one (which I haven't read yet) because it wraps up most of the important plot points, and really only leaves the persistent multiversal warning-dreams part of the story unexamined.
Displaying 1 of 1 review